Studio@620 Le Salon de Dance

Le Salon de Dance
Studio@620


This past Saturday I had the opportunity to visit and offer my volunteer service to Studio 620. The venue for the evening was Le Salon De Dance featuring Jennifer Archibald a dancer from New York City. Her one-person performance montage was a mixture of Hip Hop, Jazz and classical performance art. Miss Archibald’s recital was an extremely phyisacal and expressional performance in which she used a pre-recorded sound track of herself interviewed. The topics ranged from her art to her political stance on Hip-hop, race and war, while, she expressional moved on stage, and then punctuated, by a music sound track where she would break into dance re-emphasizing her subject’s stance. Her stage performance was broken into three acts with two videos slotted between the acts. The videos maintained the same theme as the live performance and were a collaboration of a director, choreographer, and Miss Archibald. The evening ended with a Q&A with the audience and Miss Archibald and was followed by a theater party, which I did not attend. In all I found the performance, studio, and patrons a pleasing and stimulating experience and would recommend for anyone who wanted to experience performance out side of the box.

Anna Deavere Smith - Letters to a young artist

Anna Deavere Smith
Letters to a young artist


From the first page to the last I found Letters to a young artist impelling, insightful and motivational, not only for the inspiring artist, as it offered clear insight into a way of proceeding through life with an emphasis of paying attention to all that is around you and your assimilation and processing of it “ wide-awakeness”. The book, which is set up as most self-help and spiritual books are, allows the reader to access a character insight by definition from its contents, this is helpful for quick access to ones particular need. Her innovative method of producing a fictional young artist and her mentoring insights through letter was a process I found uniquely interesting. Miss Smith perception of “the man” a street verbiage depicting the positive or negative link in ones direction. I found this insight pertinent in fine-tuning ones awareness, and communication skills for their will always be the man who comes in many forms. He is the cop, the judge, the dope dealer, the director, the coach, the boss at work and the professor at school they are all instrumental in your movement forward, or backward so take note and act appropriately is her message. To think, act outside of the box, and to venture beyond the norm, to face your fears, and shed their shackles. To fall with a laugh, and not a frown and then to surface with a newfound strength, of passion and confidence in your path are character attributes of presence. The presence Miss Smith speaks of is being comfortable within ones skin and when you are, you shine. The inspirational and motivational theme Letters to a young Artist professes is a very down to earth humane approach. “Art should take what is complex and render it simple” In life as well.

Nothing should ever be left un-said!